The present invention relates to chopsticks or pickers. In the text of this application, the term blank is used for making reference to chopsticks/pickers of different breadth and/or length.
Conventional chopsticks traditionally comprising separate sticks are clumsy to those not skilled in their use. Further, conventional chopsticks/pincers of jointed or permanently fixed type have found limited use or required coupling the sticks to each other by means of a third, additional piece making the technical implementation clumsy and costly (cf. GB Pat. No. 2,288,320A). The embodiment disclosed patent publication PCT/GB97/01206 uses a joint whose structure is limiting to the dimensions of the sticks, makes them wide and disadvantageously dissimilar with each other. The structure of the joint limits the reach offered to the user and weakens the strength of the sticks.
It is an object of the present invention to provide chopsticks or like utensils that are free from the above-described drawbacks. Chopsticks according to the invention are characterized in that the joint portion blank is fabricated by providing at least one of the sticks with a notch on which the other stick is superimposed thus allowing the sticks to function as a pincer-like pair.
The pivot joint according to the invention facilitates the use of the sticks entirely separately, as a pair of separate sticks in the same manner as conventional chopsticks or, through connecting two sticks by means of the pivot joint to each other, as squeezable pincers that even an unskilled user finds easy to handle. In the pincer position, the picking ends of the sticks open automatically when the squeezing action of fingers is released, thus making it easy to use the jointed chopsticks for eating. The dimensions of the entire stick blank, its joint end and/or its picking end can be varied according to intended use thereby assuring a positive grip with the sticks on pieces and food of different nature and/or dimensions; examples of such pickers being chopsticks, salad tongs and barbecue tongs. The structure and location of the joint are nonlimiting to the shaping of the picking portion of the blanks. Advantageously, the chopstick pair is formed by two blanks having an identical design of the joint portion, wherein other portions of the chopstick pair can be shaped to meet the needs of the intended use without being limited by the design of the joint portion, thus making industrial production of the chopsticks easy and cost-efficient. The structural details of the joint portion allow relatively large manufacturing tolerances. These improvements over the prior art can be attained according to the invention by virtue of a pivot joint that facilitates the connection of two separate blanks into a pincer-like pair, however, without limiting the use of the blanks as two separate pickers in the same fashion as conventional chopsticks or food tongs.